Raising Cane’s Unveils Restaurant Partner Program

Raising Cane’s Unveils Restaurant Partner Program

It started as a college dream for a budding entrepreneur named Todd Graves. Do one thing better than anyone else: serve quality chicken finger meals.

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has now surpassed $1.5 billion in annual sales – tripling in size within the last four years and more than doubling its team to 25,000 Crewmembers – while serving nearly one billion quality chicken finger meals. In addition, the company and its Restaurant Leaders are actively involved in each of their local Communities, giving back nearly $50 million to more than 20,000 organizations over the same time period.

With its 500^th Restaurant about to open, the fastest-growing Restaurant concept over $1 billion in sales shows no signs of slowing down.

Last week, building on its deeply rooted philosophy of respecting, rewarding and recognizing its Crew, Raising Cane’s rolled out a significant evolution to its Managing Partner Program – the new Restaurant Partner Program.

Announced by Founder, Owner & Co-CEO Graves and Co-CEO & COO AJ Kumaran, the program lays out a path for Raising Cane’s Restaurant Leaders and others to attain a level of compensation and quality of life unmatched in the restaurant industry. Financial buy-in is typically required in most restaurant industry partnership programs, but Raising Cane’s Restaurant Partner Program invites exceptional Restaurant Leaders to invest with hard work and stellar performance, both inside the Restaurant and as leaders in their Community.

The program includes four key areas of focus:

• Best-in-class Education, Development & Training;
• Best-In-The-Business Support Structure, providing functional experts supporting each Restaurant Leader in-market, including Marketing Leaders, Training Leaders, Facilities Leaders, Recruiting Leaders and additional operations leadership within Business Unit Teams;
• A holistic approach to wellness, including health and financial planning support; and,
• Industry-Leading Compensation Programs, including base salary and bonus to exceed $100,000 annually, and business-building incentives with the ability to accumulate a net worth of over one million dollars within 15 years.

“We’ve done our research and we’ve been mapping out this plan with compensation experts for more than a year,” Kumaran said. “It is, beyond a doubt, the richest compensation plan for front-line operators in the entire restaurant industry. This program illustrates the entrepreneurial dream. You can join us for your first job and grow with our business, being supported in a holistic way from education and training to health and financial planning. And over time, you can even become a millionaire, because You Can at Cane’s™.”

“At Cane’s, it all starts with our Culture that is rooted in appreciation,” Graves said. “I appreciate our Crew that work hard to take care of the Customers who spend their hard-earned money in our Restaurants. We’re equally grateful for the support our Communities give to us. And we’re excited about taking our business to the next level, as we continue to grow the right way. I remain fully committed to my vision, which is to grow Restaurants, serving Customers all over the world, and be the brand for quality chicken finger meals, a great Crew, cool Culture, and active Community involvement.”

Over the years, Raising Cane’s has been recognized with many of the restaurant industry’s most-coveted awards:

• Top 10 brand for craveability and overall reputation, including the Most Loyal Guests – known as “Caniacs” – in the fast-casual segment in Technomic’s 2018 Consumers’ Choice Awards. Raising Cane’s was also ranked #46 in U.S. systemwide sales.
• Nation’s Restaurant News recognized Cane’s as the 6^th fastest-growing brand in the U.S. in 2019.
• Sandelman & Associates has ranked Raising Cane’s as a leading restaurant in Overall Customer Satisfaction for 13 years in a row and honored Cane’s with its Award of Excellence in 2019.
• Last month, Thrillist’s inaugural “Fasties” crowned Cane’s the “Best Chicken Tenders” in America.
• Todd Graves ranked #28 on the list of Top 100 CEOs in the U.S. by Glassdoor, which also listed Raising Cane’s among the Top 100 Best Places to Work in the U.S.
• Among its many other workplace recognitions, Cane’s is the only company, in any category, named to The Dallas Morning News‘ Top Places to Work for its entire 11-year history.
• Forbes recognized Raising Cane’s in its Best Employers for Diversity awards.